Celtic v Hearts LIVE: Scottish Premiership title goes down to final day with history on the line

Hearts could have won the league on Wednesday if they beat Falkirk at Tynecastle and Celtic lost at Motherwell. And for a 12-minute spell, those results were happening, leaving Hearts on course for the title.

That was just the start of the drama, though. After Hearts beat Falkirk 3-0, they learned that Celtic had been awarded a 96th-minute penalty at Motherwell, which was converted by Kelechi Iheanacho to seal a 3-2 win.

Hearts could have afforded to lose at Celtic Park by two goals had the reigning champions been held to a draw by Motherwell. Instead, a hugely contentious moment, swung the race back towards Celtic: a win over Hearts today, by another margin, will be enough.

Derek McInnes is without Craig Halkett and Marc Leonard after both suffered Achilles injuries against Motherwell. Harry Milne and Cammy Devlin returned in the win over Falkirk but both were withdrawn before full-time as McInnes attempted to manage their minutes after injury lay-offs of their own. The leaders do not appear to have picked up any fresh fitness issues in the win over Falkirk.

Martin O’Neill appears to have settled on a favoured formula, with the choice between Sebastian Tounekti and Luke McCowan on the wing the only change the Celtic boss has made between the recent wins over Rangers and Motherwell. Daizen Maeda continued his scoring run at Motherwell while Kelechi Iheanacho produced another big moment from the bench, Celtic able to call upon the impact sub if required.

Kick-off is at 12:30pm at Celtic Park, Glasgow. It will be shown live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football, with coverage getting underway from 11:30pm.

Hearts: Will win the league if they avoid defeat at Celtic Park. It would be their first league title since 1960, 66 years ago, and would break the most dominant duopoly in European football. For the past 41 years, the Scottish title has only been won by Celtic or Rangers.

Celtic: Will win the league if they beat Hearts. It would be a 14th league title in 15 years for Celtic since 2012, and would complete the most stunning comeback under Martin O’Neill, the 74-year-old manager who could win a fourth league title in Scotland, 22 years since his last.

So it all comes down to this. After 37 games of the season, the Scottish Premiership will be decided by a final-day shootout between the top two, Hearts and Celtic. History is on the line, and it doesn’t get bigger than this. Stay with us for all the build-up between now and kick-off at 12:30pm.